Recording Studio Soundproofing

Your studio can turn your hobby into a professional music career. The freedom to record at any hour of the day or night, professional sound quality for your demos, and all the privacy and convenience of creating music in your own home…it’s any musician’s dream.

And yet, it’s completely possible. You can have a home recording studio that produces top sound quality without the worry of bothering your family, roommates or neighbors. All you need is some recording studio soundproofing.

Many musicians come to Soundproof Cow to take their recording space to the next level.

Most recording studio soundproofing projects need both soundproofing and sound absorption materials. To understand which recording studio soundproofing products you need, you first need to think about how sound acts.

Sound absorption materials are applied to the interior of the studio. They soak up sound waves, preventing them from bouncing back off the walls. Echo and reverberation is minimized. While these products do an excellent job of improving sound quality, they are not made to block sound.

Recording studio soundproofing products trap the sound. They are designed to stop sound from moving from one space to another. The sound is contained within the studio and doesn’t reach other parts of your house. In addition to keeping sound from leaking out, recording studio soundproofing products also stop unwanted sound from entering the studio.

Often musicians think recording studio soundproofing means creating a totally soundproofed area. To achieve this in a private residence is practically impossible and extremely expensive. A term that better fits your recording studio soundproofing objectives is Sound Isolation.

Sound isolation requires a sound barrier between your studio and adjacent rooms. One way to isolate a recording studio is to install dense recording studio soundproofing products. Their heavy mass blocks the sound.

Another way to isolate your recording studio is to create air space between walls and reduce the number of contact points between building materials. When construction elements aren’t physically touching, the sound waves can’t be passed from one to the other.

You need superb sound quality. Sound leaking out of your studio or unwanted sound making its way in is not an option.

To improve the sound quality in the studio, you’ll need Sound Absorption. If your studio has great acoustics but noise outside the studio interferes with recordings, you’ll need Soundproofing.

To create the best environment to lay down tracks, you’ll want to use a combination of both types of recording studio soundproofing products. Depending on where your receiver is located in relation to the studio sound, you may have to pay special attention to certain barriers.

Walls -Sound isolation methods, such as mass loaded vinyl barriers or insulation, work best for walls. Also recommended is creating an air gap between the existing wall and new drywall. To achieve professional quality sound, high grade studio foam should be installed to absorb sound energy and cut down on echo and reverb.

Floors – The best method of soundproofing your floors depends on your existing flooring. If you have simple hardwood floors, you’ll want to get isolators. Isolators create a separation in the flooring, usually with rubber, so no part of the new floor touches the original. If you have a solid concrete floor, acoustical quality carpet underlay is recommended.

Ceilings – Creating a dropped ceiling packed with proofing materials is the best solution for a home studio. It can be used in conjunction with high-end acoustic tiles. Some products have a fiberglass core with a mass loaded vinyl barrier on the back to serve all purposes.

ADAPT Acoustical Treatments

Soundproofing Solutions for Studios

Studio soundproofing materials that absorb sound act like sponges soaking in most of the sound waves striking them. Although all materials — whether porous, semi-porous or solid — absorb some portion of a sound wave, the terms “acoustic panel” or “acoustic material” refer primarily to materials developed for the purpose of offering optimal sound absorption values. Because music studio sound proofing absorbers reflect little, if any, sound energy striking them, they are useful for controlling unwanted noise and reverberation.

A wide variety of eco-friendly sound absorption materials exist today that provide different sound reducing properties for soundproofing a studio. The best studio attenuation materials are porous — i.e., material containing tiny channels, cavities or intervening spaces allowing for the passage and absorption of sound waves. Most porous, sound absorbing materials are classified as fibrous, granular or cellular and work to reduce noise clutter and reverberation by dissipating sound waves through friction with air molecules moving inside pores.

What to Know About Soundproofing a Music Studio

Soundproofing materials may or may not work as effectively as you want them to work. The main principles of soundproofing are conduction/space, mass, isolation, absorption, and dampening. Space is easy to understand: the farther away something noisy is, the less noticeable the sound. Solid mass objects work to block sound waves by simply stopping the path of sound waves. Sound waves hitting a solid mass bounce off and essentially “die,” leaving the other side of the solid mass quieter. Isolation or decoupling creates structural breaks in the path sound is traveling. Isolation is the key to stopping structural borne sounds and heavy vibrations. Absorption materials suck up sound like a sponge. Porous foams and cotton-based materials are very common sound absorbers. They are very effective at trapping sound and minimizing sound reflection. Dampening materials dissipate sound energy. These materials are visco-elastic in nature and dissipate sound energy by reducing resonance.

Studio Soundproofing typically utilizes multiple types of sound control. Sound control materials used to stop transfer into or out of the space are typically implemented during construction of a building or later as part of a renovation project. Mass and Isolation are the most common soundproofing methods used in construction or remodeling of studios. These materials are utilized within the wall, ceiling, and floor assemblies. Sound Absorption materials are typically used to treat the space acoustically after construction or remodeling of the walls, ceiling and floor assemblies is completed. Porous foam, cotton, or fiberglass panels are mounted on the wall and ceiling surfaces to minimize reverberation and create an acoustically sound environment in the studio.

Although porous sound absorbers like acoustic fiberglass do not block sound waves, they substantially minimize noise clutter by de-energizing sound waves as waves encounter heavy friction between fibers. This type of sound absorber not only reduces sound levels within a recording studio, but also decreases echoes, reverberation times and stops focusing of noise reflected off curved surfaces.

If you’re wondering about soundproofing solutions for studios, stop stressing and call the experts at Soundproof Cow for affordable, simple solutions: 1-866-949-9269.